


My Best Friend's Wedding.

by helsinkibaby



Category: Fame (TV), NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, F/M, Het, Romance, mention of canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 08:31:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3889546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nate gets an invite to his best friend's wedding and brings Kensi as his date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Best Friend's Wedding.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the NCIS LA Big Bang challenge. 
> 
> Once upon a long ago, I wrote an LJ post where I commented on Nate's total cluelessness with women and mentioned how I just wanted to write him and Reggie Higgins from Fame commiserating with one another about how she is equally clueless with guys. Much massaging of timelines later (those shows are ten years apart) and this challenge gave me the excuse to write something along those lines.
> 
> AU from season two, wherein Nate was gone for awhile but did come back to join the team.

It may have been a bright, typically sunny, California morning but no-one looking at Nate Getz would ever have worked that out. Jacket pulled tight around his chest, sunglasses over his eyes, he walked into the mission with his shoulders hunched, looking down at the ground - if he'd been in a cartoon, there would have been a dark cloud drawn over his head, possibly with lightning emerging for good measure. He looked neither right nor left as he made his way along the hall, past the desks of his colleagues and straight to the coffee machine where he helped himself to the largest cup on the counter and filled it brim full. Large amounts of sugar duly poured in, he took a fortifying sip, then another, closing his eyes as he felt the caffeine begin to work its way through his system. 

"Rough night?" 

He'd been so focused on the coffee that he hadn't heard Deeks coming up behind him and while normally a strange voice at his elbow would make him jump, and make the others laugh at him, on this particular morning all he had the energy to do was incline his head only slightly towards the detective. "Yes," was all he said, and through his glasses he could see Deeks grinning. Schadenfreude, Nate decided, didn't suit the other man and he made a mental note to bring his next scheduled psych eval forward, just to teach him a lesson. Assuming, that is, he'd remember to do that by the time he made it to his office. 

His office. The thought gave him a moment of hope, because his office just happened to have a very comfortable couch in the corner, put in there by Hetty over the jokes (or were they really?) of all the other team members. 

That couch was very tempting that morning. He could pull down the blinds, lock the door, catch forty winks, no-one would know. 

Nate shook his head, attempting to clear the thought before it could become any more tempting. Hetty would know. Hetty always knew. 

Dragging himself into the present, he realised that Deeks was talking to him, was in fact looking at him curiously, like he'd been talking to him for the last few minutes and Nate hadn't been paying attention. "I'm on my second cup," he said and Nate took the hint, stepping back to let Deeks refill his half-empty cup, surprised because normally it was Kensi, not Deeks, who haunted the coffee pot. "Listening to the Ian Ware fan club over there, I think I'm going to need it."

Nate blinked, turned his head (ever so carefully so that it didn't fall off) and looked in the direction that Deeks had indicated. Sam and Callen were sitting at their desks, looking at Nell and Kensi  with expressions that veered somewhere between confusion and disbelief, with a stop off at amusement along the way. "They were at the concert last night," Deeks further explained quietly, before sing-songing even more quietly, "Craaa-zy!"

Pulling off his sunglasses, slightly regretting it when he saw shock flitter across Deeks's face - those bags under his eyes must look worse than he thought - Nate made his way over towards the desks, sipping his coffee as he did so. He got there just in time to hear Sam declare, "I  don't know why you're all het up over this guy... he's no Michael."

The reactions that he got from Nell and Kensi would have been funny, Nate thought, if one of them didn't have hands that qualified as lethal weapons and the other knew a hundred different ways to erase your identity whilst ensuring she never got caught at it. Deeks's snicker distracted Kensi from Sam as she turned a glare on her partner, while Nell took the high road, though her sniff was certainly eloquent in its haughty disdain. 

Kensi, meanwhile, had caught sight of Nate as she'd glared at Deeks and she blinked as her eyes moved over him from head to foot and back again. He tried not to take it personally - he'd known he looked bad, but he didn't think it was _that_ bad. "Nate!" As she if was aware of the surprise in her voice she stopped, swallowing hard. "Where were you last night?"

Ignoring the sputters and smirks from everyone, because what Kensi hadn't said was as obvious as what she had, Nate took another sip of coffee before he answered, which gave Sam enough time to weigh in. "I'd normally have your back, Nate, but what Kensi is so eloquently not saying is that you look like you've been rode hard and put away wet." He waggled his eyebrows, something Nate had never seen him do before. "Got something you want to tell us?"

"I was at the same place you were," Nate replied, keeping his eyes on Kensi and Nell and ignoring Sam completely. 

"How did you get tickets?" Once again, surprise was stamped all over Kensi's face. "Do you know what Nell had to do-"

An explosive throat clearing from Nell had them all looking over at her, only to see her glaring at Kensi and shaking her head. Kensi looked instantly guilty, her eyes darting nervously towards Hetty's office. "Oh please," Callen said, sounding highly amused. "Do tell."

Nell took a leaf out of Nate's earlier play book, acting as if Callen hadn't spoken. "We didn't see you there, Nate," she said. "Where were you standing?"

Nate shrugged. "Backstage." The word had its intended effect; Nell and Kensi's jaws literally dropped and out of the corner of his eye he could see Callen and Sam exchanging surprised, and if he didn't know better, he'd say impressed, glances. "I know someone..."

What he was about to say was interrupted by a sharp whistle from the balcony and everyone turned to see Eric looking down at them, trusty tablet in hand. It could have been Nate's imagination but it looked like Eric was looking directly at him as he gestured to everyone to come up to Ops. Eric's next words removed any doubt. "He's not lying."

Nell and Kensi exchanged glances and were the first to move, with Deeks, Sam and Callen following close behind. Nate followed them all, partly because he still didn't have the energy to bound up the stairs, still waiting for the caffeine to take full effect, and partly because he was wondering what the hell Eric had found to have him saying that. 

When he arrived in Ops, he didn't have to wait for his answer, though Eric did wait until he'd arrived before beginning to speak. "So," he began, with a theatrical flourish,  "you may or may not know that we have an alert set up for your images if they appear online... lets us know if we're going to have to delete something that might compromise a back story, that kind of thing." Nate did know that, he'd just forgotten about it, mostly because as a psychologist, going undercover really didn't apply to him. Even since he'd returned from his year in the Middle East, his cases were mostly consulting, interrogating, observing. "Very rarely," Eric continued, "does anything actually show up. Except this morning, when I got an alert about Nate."

With that and a press of a button, an image flashed up on the screen of Ops that caused Nell and Kensi to actually gasp aloud. Sam chuckled, and Nate didn't know whether it was due to the photo or their reaction, while Deeks and Callen just raised their eyebrows and looked at him. 

It was an Instagram photo, from the account bearing the name of "ReggieHigginsOfficial" and there were three people in it. In the middle was a woman with long, light brown hair and a toothy grin. To her left was a bald man in a black t-shirt, smiling a close mouthed smile.  To her right was Nate. 

"That's you." Kensi sounded like she couldn't believe her eyes. "That's you with Ian Ware."

"Read the caption." Eric sounded like he was enjoying this far too much. 

"Hanging out with my two favourite men, Ian Ware and Nate Getz... one week to go!" Nell's voice was equally disbelieving. "You mean the person you actually know is them?"

Nate was only half listening because the caption had made him grin, especially when he noticed the time stamp and did the math. The photo had been posted at four am, not long after he'd left, and working out instantly what must have happened, he chuckled to himself, took out his phone and pressed a couple of buttons, knowing he was about to blow his team-mates' minds, not really minding all that much. A devilish impulse had him putting the phone onto speaker mode and he didn't miss how the  team stepped closer so they wouldn't miss a thing. 

After a couple of rings, the phone was answered and a female voice that sounded ten times worse than Nate felt said not very loudly and not very clearly, "Nate, if you're not dead, I swear to God, I'm going to kill you."

The voice was a familiar one from television and movies and Nate could actually feel the incredulity  from the others. "Reg, remember how you always ask about my work and I always say that it's top secret, hush hush, if I told you I'd have to kill you?"

There was a pause, then a slow, "Yeah..."

"How does tagging me in an Instagram that your thousands of followers will see help that?"

There was a silence, then a horrified gasp, a rustle of blankets and a muffled string of expletives in a male British accent. "Oh my God, Nate, I'm sorry, I didn't even think, I'll delete it right now, hang on..." Then the line went dead and Nate grinned, shaking his head fondly. 

"Did she just hang up on you?" Deeks asked and Nate shrugged. 

"Only to open Instagram and hit delete. If she can work out how; Reggie's not great with technology." In point of fact, he was quite impressed she'd managed to upload the picture at all, especially given her state when he'd left. "Just give her a couple of minutes."

"And maybe in those couple of minutes," Deeks said, characteristically being the first to recover, "you can tell us how you've been holding out on us." A grin hovered around his lips, the new guy not being the butt of the joke for once and that did it for Nate, his psych eval would be as soon as Nate could physically focus his eyes on one thing for long enough. "Rubbing shoulders with rock stars?"

"And actresses?" Sam inclined his head towards the screen and Reggie's smiling face. "My daughter loves the last kids film she did... It's been a movie night constant since we got the DVD." Sam didn't sound particularly happy about that and Nate let it go. 

"Reggie and I grew up together," he told them. "She was literally the girl next door. We did everything together until high school, when she got into the School of the Arts, but we stayed friends." He grinned at the picture on the screen, his mind's eye recalling hundreds like it, as he recalled Reggie's insistence that the shot be taken. "She's loyal like that." Just then his phone rang and knowing it would be more than his life was worth to do anything else, he put it straight to speaker. "Hey, Reg."

"It's gone. I think it's gone. No, I'm sure it's gone." Reggie still sounded flustered but Eric was pressing buttons on his tablet and sure enough, the image vanished from the screen. "Oh, Nate, tequila is evil."

"News to no-one." Nate's response was the one of a man who'd left before the shots were poured and from the groan Reggie gave, he was glad of it.

"I officially hate you," Reggie announced and Nate laughed. 

"No you don't."

"No I don't."

"Get some sleep. I'll see you in New York." Nate's finger hovered over the disconnect button. "Thanks, Reg."

"No more drunk Instragramming... I promise." 

Nate couldn't help himself; he actually snorted with laughter and then had to hide another smile at the looks of shock on the team's faces. "I'll believe it when I see it." There was another laugh from the other end of the line before Nate disconnected the call. Sliding the phone into his back pocket, he looked over at Eric. "Thanks for the heads up," he said, taking a sip of his coffee before turning to walk back to his office. 

A call from Deeks stopped him. "What's in New York?" From the look on his face, it was evident what he was thinking and Nate shook his head, happy to discover that the movement gave him very little pain and absolutely no nausea - score one for caffeine. 

Nell, however, answered before he could. "The wedding." There was a look of dawning amazement on her face as she put the pieces together. "You were backstage last night... and next week you're going to their wedding."

Nate nodded. "Last night was the last night of Ian's tour," he confirmed. "They head back this afternoon, get all the last minute preparations done..." He closed his eyes as a thought hit him, namely that there might be just as much alcohol involved. His liver gave a lurch and he nearly missed Callen's next comment. 

"You've been holding out on us, Nate."

Lifting an eyebrow, Nate said nothing, just grinned as he walked away to the safety of his office.  

*

Much to his surprise, he remained undisturbed there for much of the day, reviewing case files slowly as he consumed his own body weight in coffee. It was late afternoon when there was a knock on his door and Kensi entered, a thick file in her hand. "This is the Sergeant Cooper case," she told him, handing it across his desk. "My report's on top... You can read it and debrief me whenever."

Nate took the file, flicked through it more out of habit than curiosity. "Thanks," he said, as if he hadn't been trying to get this from her for the last week. "Anything I particularly need to know about?" 

Kensi shook her head. "All went according to plan." Settling herself in the chair across from his, she cast a pointed glance at the cup of coffee on his desk. "How are you feeling?" 

"That depends," Nate grinned. "Who's running the book on when the caffeine jitters get the better of me, and what time do you have?"

Kensi's laugh, he thought to himself, was a rare and beautiful thing, but he pushed that thought away quickly before it could show on his face. "No book," she told him. "Although Deeks was tempted. Sam talked him out of it." She threw a glance over her shoulder at the closed door as if Sam was going to come bursting through it at any second. "I think he's looking for an autograph for his daughter though."

Not sure if she was joking, Nate shrugged. "I'm sure that can be arranged," he said mildly. "Did you and Nell enjoy yourselves last night?"

The smile he got in response was its own answer, and just as beautiful as her laugh had been. "It was awesome," she told him frankly. "And one of these days I will tell you what Nell went through to get those tickets for us." She didn't mention fear of Hetty overhearing; she didn't have to. "Who knew we had an in we could have used?"

She was joking, and he knew it but he heard the underlying question there too. "It honestly never occurred to me to mention it," he told her. "If I'd known you and Nell were fans, I would have... though I'm not so sure you'd have believed me." He kept the statement light, a gentle question of his own and when she ducked her head, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks, he knew he'd guessed right. Not that he could blame her - Ian had sold millions of records all over the world, Reggie was an award winning actress. Who'd have ever believed that their paths would have crossed with Nate Getz, geeky psychologist? 

"Did you and Reggie ever-?" Kensi stopped herself, mouth clamping shut with an almost audible snap. Shaking her head, she flexed her hands on the armrest of the chair. "You know what, never mind, I shouldn't have asked that."

"You want to know did we ever date?" Her red cheeks answered for her and he shook his head. "You wouldn't be the first to ask." That seemed to relax her and he shook his head. "I've never thought of Reggie that way," he told her. "We were born three months apart, our mothers used to push us around the park in our strollers... and don't even think about asking for pictures, they exist and you will never see them." A giggle, and she was leaning back in the chair now. "She's like a sister to me... and besides, even if there had been any interest, on either of our parts? She met Ian when we were seventeen and after that, there was never going to be anyone else for her." He chuckled to himself, remembering some of the late night phone calls when things hadn't been going smoothly for them and he'd been Reggie's shoulder to cry on. "It was always just going to be a matter of time."

"Wow." He wasn't sure if Kensi meant for him to hear that so he didn't call her on it. Instead he reached for his coffee, grimacing in disgust as he realised it had gone cold. 

"At the moment, I'm just worried about the effect of this wedding on my liver," he said, shuddering as he recalled the hedonism backstage the previous night. 

"You'll be fine." Kensi sounded more confident than he felt. "When do you leave?"

"I fly out next Friday. Rehearsal dinner is that evening, the wedding is Saturday. Sunday, I'm either sleeping or getting my stomach pumped." He was not joking but she laughed anyway, that rare and beautiful sound again and he blamed that entirely for the next words that came out of his mouth. "You should come."

Kensi stopped laughing abruptly. "What?"

Nate's first impulse was to pray for the ground to open and swallow him up, his second to backpedal furiously. His third - standing his ground - won out. "You should come," he said again. "I have a plus one, which with all this -" A wave of his hand at the tower of files on his desk illustrated his point - "I haven't had a chance to even think about. We can hang out in New York at a fancy hotel, have pretty much everything paid for courtesy of my millionaire friends, you can meet everyone..." Kensi looked like she was equal parts tempted and terrified. Seeing that, Nate moved to lighten the atmosphere. "Besides you'd be doing me a favour." He leaned forward, lowered his voice conspiratorially. "If you don't come, I might actually have to bring my mother." An exaggerated grimace - he'd picked up something after all those years as Reggie's friend - seemed to do the trick and Kensi was smiling again. "Think about it," he said and she nodded. 

"I don't need to think about it," she said and his heart actually skipped a beat. "I'd love to."

*

"One room?" 

The receptionist seemed taken aback at the look on Nate's face and Kensi reached over, laying a hand on his arm as if she was afraid he was going to launch himself over the counter at her. "That's fine," she said, smiling as she accepted the key. "It's fine," she said again to Nate. 

"I told Reggie we'd need another room," he said, shaking his head and much to his surprise, Kensi shrugged. 

"She probably had other things on her mind," she pointed out. "Besides, if you weren't listening properly, they've given us a suite... you could probably fit half of Ops in it." Nate must have looked as sceptical as he felt. "Look, let's see what it's like, we can go to Plan B later."

They headed towards the elevator, stopping at the top floor but one and walking down labyrinthine corridors until they found their room. Once inside, Nate had to admit that Kensi was right; there was a small hallway immediately inside the door which lead into a sitting room that Nate would swear was as big as his apartment. To the right, there were double doors that lead into the bedroom, and it was there that his worst fears were confirmed - there was only one bed. 

Kensi shrugged off her jacket, threw it on the couch. "Letting your friends put us up? Good idea." She was grinning and it almost made Nate want to grin along with her. 

"You can have the bed," he told her, receiving a quizzical look for his trouble. "I'll be ok on the couch..."

Snickering, Kensi gave him the look she normally reserved for Deeks when he'd done or said something she couldn't quite believe. "Nate, that couch is a foot shorter than you are," she pointed out. "And have you seen this bed?" Walking over to the bed, she flopped threatrically down on it, spreading her arms and legs starfish style. The bed was so big that there was still plenty of room all around her, even when she wiggled like she was making a snow angel. "Sam and Callen could fit in here with us. Probably Deeks too." Propping herself up on her elbows, she stared at him. "You're not sleeping on the couch."

Glancing from the couch to the bed, Nate had to admit she was right. "If you're sure..."

An most inelegant snort was his answer. "I've slept in worse places," she reminded him. "And so have you."

"Can't argue with that." Nate was about to ask her again if she was sure when his cell phone rang and when he pulled it out, he saw Reggie's number flashing up. 

"Are you here?" Reggie sounded giddy, not even letting him say hello when he answered. "Please say you're here, I can't wait to meet your friend!"

Nate just about resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Reggie had reverted to a bratty teenage - or younger - sister the minute he'd told her that he was bringing someone to the wedding. No matter that he'd also told her they were just friends, Reggie hadn't believed him for an instant. Or rather, she had, and had correctly intuited that, certainly since coming back from a year in the Middle East, Nate's feelings had changed from platonic to decidedly not. "We just checked in," he told her. 

"Come up and see me." It was more of a demand than an invitation. "We're in the penthouse...just look for the elevator guarded by a scowling man-mountain, your name is on the list. See you in a few!"

With that, she disconnected the call and from the grin on Kensi's face, Nate figured that she had heard every word. "Your presence is requested in the penthouse," he announced, entering into the spirit of the weekend and taking a theatrical flourish that Reggie would be proud of by extending his arm. "Shall we?"

Kensi looked at him like she wasn't sure if he was joking or not but she laced her arm through his and allowed him to lead the way to the aforementioned man mountain manned elevator. It was a short ride up to the penthouse and when the elevator doors opened, Reggie was waiting for them, literally bouncing up and down on her heels. 

Nate barely had time to step foot out of the elevator before she engulfed him in a hug. "I'm so glad you're here," she said and he looked down at her, raising an eyebrow. 

"You saw me last week," he reminded her and she laughed, waving a hand. 

"I know... I think this bride thing has me all sentimental." Her smile widened as she looked past him. "You must be Kensi." Nate wasn't surprised when she got the same type of hug he'd received, realising too late that he should probably have warned Kensi about that. "It's so good to meet you." 

Kensi looked slightly bemused when Reggie let her go, tucking a strand of hair back behind her ear. "You too." 

"Come on, let's sit down, we have coffee up here but I can get you tea if you'd prefer... or something stronger?"

Nate shook his head. "Coffee's fine," he said, trying to ignore how, when Kensi's back was to Reggie, Reggie mouthed at him, "She's gorgeous!" 

"Coffee would be great, thanks." Kensi settled down on one of the couches, Nate sitting down beside her for moral support, though he wasn't entirely sure which one of them needed the supporting. 

"You didn't have any trouble getting time off?" Reggie poured two steaming mugs of coffee as she spoke. "I'd hate for my wedding to interrupt the safety of the free world..."

Kensi smiled at that. "The free world's safe for the moment," she replied. "I think we're allowed the weekend off."

Reggie's smile widened as she caught the use of the plural pronoun and interpreted it, Nate knew, in an entirely different way than Kensi had intended. "I wouldn't have missed this for the world," he said honestly, and the words had Reggie smiling over at him, suspiciously misty eyed. 

"Like I'd've let you." Handing him the mug of coffee, she sat down on the couch opposite them. "I hate to use an old threat, but I would have told your mom on you." Eyes sparkling, she grinned at Kensi in a way that told Nate he might yet regret bringing her here. "Has he told you we've been friends all our lives?"

Kensi nodded, with a sideways smile at Nate that told him just how much trouble he was in. "He wouldn't show me any pictures though."

Reggie didn't blink. "Give me your email address, I'll see what I can send you. And don't listen to what he says about his mom - she's not that scary. Though to be on the safe side, you're not sitting too close to each other."

Something suddenly occurred to Nate and when Kensi said, "Oh my God," in an amazed tone, he fancied that she'd come to the same conclusion. "Your mom's going to be at the wedding.  I'll actually get to meet her?" 

Nate could feel the blood draining from his face at Reggie's enthusiastic nod and he fought back a groan. "Rachel's just very protective of Nate," Reggie explained. "She's never liked any girls that he brings home." Her smile faltered suddenly. "Well... except one." She bit her lip, eyes far away and Nate cleared his throat, taking a sip of coffee to wash down the lump in his throat. 

Kensi frowned, looking between the two of them but she didn't ask for an explanation, left it up to Reggie to change the topic. "Listen, I need to ask you something..." She was talking to Nate but looked over at Kensi. "I'll understand if you don't want to leave Kensi on her own... but I was wondering..." She took a deep breath and Nate was familiar enough to Reggie to know that she was trying to figure out how to put her thoughts into words. "Nate, you're my oldest friend. The closest thing to a brother I have. And since my dad's not here anymore..." Another sharp intake of breath. "Nate, will you give me away?"

Of all the things she could have said, that wasn't one he was expecting and Nate felt his jaw drop. He knew what he would have wanted his answer to be, but he also knew it wasn't that easy. Glancing at Kensi to ask her what she thought, he instead received a brisk nod. He lifted one eyebrow in silent question, got another nod for his trouble. Looking back at Reggie, he had to clear his throat again before he spoke. "It would be my honour."

This time Reggie's eyes were more than misty. A full sheen of tears coated them, even if her smile was as bright and beaming as any he'd ever seen. It only grew broader when the elevator dinged and Reggie looked over Nate's shoulder, standing to greet whoever had just entered the room. 

"You made it then!" After almost twenty years of living in America, Ian had never lost his Cockney accent. "Good to see you, Doc." Nate stood too, extending his hand to Ian, not the least bit surprised when the other man pulled him into a hug. "And this must be Kensi?" Seemingly without pausing to think about it, Ian pulled Kensi into a hug as well and when he released her, Kensi looked completely shell shocked. 

"Ian, don't scare her!" Reggie was teasing her husband-to-be as he slung an arm around her neck, pulling her close to him. 

"It's ok, really," Kensi said, recovering quickly.  "It's nice to meet you."

"You too." Ian's eyes travelled up and down Kensi's body, then flicked over to Nate.  "I'll say this for you, Doc, you've got a type." He winced as Reggie swatted him on the chest, but recovered quickly, indicating the other man in the room. "You remember Jesse, don't you?"

Nate nodded, the familiar tension creeping over his shoulders as he looked into the other man's dark eyes.  "Jesse."

"Doc." The fact that Jesse was as uncomfortable as he was didn't make Nate feel any better, nor did the way that Jesse was eyeing Kensi. Tearing his eyes away from her, he looked to Ian. "I'll be in the other room... I have a speech to finish."

Ian and Reggie exchanged a look and Ian tilted his head towards Jesse's rapidly retreating figure. "I'll go with him. Make sure there's nothing too scandalous in there." He kissed Reggie, waved a hand at Nate and Kensi. "Excuse me."

Nate could see Reggie swallow hard as she watched them go and when he looked over at Kensi, all he could see in her eyes were questions. Taking a deep breath, he sat back down on the couch, gave Reggie a tight smile. 

She returned it, sitting down too. "Jesse is Ian's best man," she explained to Kensi, Nate having already known that. "He's insisting on the speech being a secret, which I think is freaking Ian out..."

"He'll do a good job." The words were out of Nate's mouth before he had time to think about them and he had the thrill of doing something he rarely did, surprising Reggie. He did it again when he stood. "We should head back, let you start getting ready for the dinner." 

"Nate-" Reggie began to protest but stopped when he walked over and hugged her. 

"It's ok," he said low in her ear, low enough that Kensi couldn't hear him. Pulling back, he kissed her cheek. "We'll see you later."

*

Nate knew that Kensi had questions but much to his surprise, she didn't ask them when they got back to the room, or at any point during the rehearsal dinner. She stayed by his side, did a more than passable job of keeping all the names of Reggie and Ian's friends straight ("It helps that most of them are famous," she confessed when he complimented her on it) and more than held up her end of the conversation with them. He'd found her and Reggie together a couple of times as well, heads together, deep in conversation, a sight that frankly terrified him. Reggie knew it too and made no bones about teasing him over it. 

"You look like you're going to have a stroke every time I talk to her," she laughed. "Don't try and tell me you two are just friends."

Nate shrugged his shoulders. "It's true," was all he said and Reggie shook her head, looking over at Ian and Kensi deep in conversation. 

"I see how you look at her." She was serious then, all joking forgotten. "And I can see why... She's great, Nate. Almost good enough for you."

"She's my team mate." Nate shook his head, looked down at his bottle of beer. "You just want to see romance everywhere this weekend."

"You're right." Reggie laid a hand on his arm. "But that doesn't mean I'm wrong."

Someone else had come along to talk to her then and Nate had wandered over to Kensi and Ian, trying to put Reggie's words out of his head. 

It hadn't really worked. 

It was late when they got back to their room and on impulse, Nate pulled open the balcony doors, walked out and took a deep breath. The lights of New York City twinkled all around them and at this time of the summer it was still warm, despite the hour. Resting his arms on the cool stone, he let his thoughts wander, until a voice at his elbow brought him back to reality. 

"Don't jump."

She'd spoken lightly, teasingly and he turned to her with a smile. Her hair, which had been in a sleek low ponytail at dinner, had been taken out and brushed, falling down her back in soft waves. Her face was scrubbed clean of makeup and her feet were bare, but she was still wearing the dress she'd worn that night. "Yes ma'am," he said turning to face her. "Did you have a good time?"

Kensi's smile brightened. "They're all so nice," she exclaimed, then shook her head as she realised how it sounded. "How about you?" That was said more seriously, with a shrewd look. "You want to talk?"

He blinked. "Stealing my lines?"

"Well I only steal from the best." They shared a smile there, a moment. "Do you? Because there were a few moments in the penthouse today that were... a little awkward?"

Nate sighed, knowing that he owed it to her to tell her the whole story. Chances were that if he didn't, someone else would, and besides, things weren't likely to get better any time soon. "Would you believe me if I told you it all started with a girl?"

Not for nothing was Kensi one of the best investigators Nate had ever met. "The only girl your mother ever liked?" she guessed, and he nodded. 

"Her name was Nicole." Even the name conjured up a hundred memories, dimmed bittersweet by time. "She was Reggie's best friend at the School of the Arts. And she was... incredible. Straight A student, beautiful, talented, popular... Reggie used to say she was the girl you'd hate if she wasn't so nice. She could sing, dance, act... Reggie, Ian, Jesse, you think they're big stars? She was going to be bigger than all of them." He paused, turned away from her to lean both arms on the balcony. "And somehow, she ended up dating me."

Kensi bumped him with her elbow, even if her smile was slightly unsure. "You're a catch."

He knew she was lying and he appreciated it. "We were seventeen... senior year... and it was all very innocent, very 1950s... lots of hand holding and making out. Which suited us both, because, and you might find this hard to believe, but I was kind of a nerd in high school? And Nicole... well, she'd just ended a very intense relationship... with Jesse."

At that, Kensi's eyes grew wide. "You. Dated the ex-girlfriend of Jesse Velasquez?" 

Considering the amount of times he'd seen Jesse listed on various sexiest man lists, Nate didn't blame her for being surprised. "We'd been friendly up til then," he told her.  "But once he found out... well, you saw."

Kensi nodded slowly, tilted her head to one side. "Why wasn't she here tonight?" she asked and Nate couldn't help it; the same old familiar pang literally made him wince. He saw the knowledge of what he was going to say register with Kensi before he spoke, saw her make the connection between the tale she'd heard as a fan and the story he was telling now, heard it when she whispered his name, when her hand found his arm.

"There was a party. I was supposed to go too, except my chemistry teacher decided to give us a quiz the next morning. So I stayed home to study." Nicole had gone to Reggie's house to get ready and they'd both called in on him before they left, Reggie trying to get him to change his mind and go, Nicole with a different offer. "She offered to stay, said she'd quiz me on the material... I told her to go. Put her and Reggie into a cab and waved them goodbye." He swallowed hard and Kensi's grip tightened on his arm. "She left before Reggie, got a ride with two friends of theirs... They'd been drinking, it was January, the roads were icy... They ran a stop sign, the car skidded... she was in the middle, no seat belt..." He stopped talking then, closed his eyes against the images he'd been imagining for almost twenty years. 

"Oh, Nate."

Kensi's voice was softer than he'd ever heard it. "They say she didn't suffer... That she never knew..." He shook his head, wiped his eyes, wondered if it would ever get easier to talk about this. "When I got back from school the next day, my mom and Reggie's mom were sitting at our kitchen table..." He'd known it was bad when he saw his mother crying, because Rachel Getz did not do tears. "Reggie and I spent most of the next few days together, trying to make sense of it... we never did."

There was a moment of quiet then, where the only things that he was conscious of were the lights of New York twinking in front of him, and Kensi's hands, one on his arm, one on his back. "I spent so long," he said eventually, "thinking about how things might have been different. If I'd gone with them, if I'd asked Nicole to stay... wondering why she didn't call me to come get her..." He shook his head. "It was the first time I'd lost a friend like that... seventeen years of age, you don't think anything like that's going to happen to the people you love..." Too late, he remembered who he was talking to. "Most of us, anyway."

When he looked at Kensi, a soft, small smile was playing around her lips. "You know that after my dad died, I ran away, right?" He nodded, wondering where she was going with this. "I spent nearly a year on the streets... completely miserable, trying to convince myself it'd all be ok. Then one day, I'm in the washroom in this convenience store, trying to clean myself up, and they've got the radio piped in through the speakers. And this song started playing... It was called, 'Never Said Goodbye'."

That was the name of Ian's breakthrough single, the one that turned him from a small time, just signed singer to bond fide star. It also had another significance. "He wrote that about Nicole."

"I heard it... and I started bawling. I mean, I fell apart, right there. Because everything he was saying, it was exactly how I felt about my dad. And I couldn't believe that someone could capture that." Her cheeks were pink as she shrugged. "That was the day I called my friend Anna, told her where I was. She came and got me and her parents took me in... I got a weekend job to help pay my way... but from my first paycheque, I bought Ian's CD. And all the rest of them ever since." She looked down, lips curving in a small smile. "That probably sounds ridiculous."

"No." Without thinking too much about it, he turned to face her, stepped towards her and pulled her into his arms. He expected perhaps a little resistance - Kensi generally did hugs like his mother did tears - and he certainly expected brevity. 

He didn't expect her to slip her arms around his waist, rest her cheek against his shoulder and relax completely against him, like she had no intention of ever moving again.

Not that he had a problem with that. 

Eventually though, he pulled back, just a little. "Come on," he said, looking down at Kensi whose cheeks were suspiciously flushed. "Let's get some sleep... I've a feeling tomorrow's going to be a long day."

*

"Kensi?" 

Nate was well aware that his voice might sound a little on the pathetic side; there was a reason for that - he was feeling fairly pathetic at that moment. 

"How are you with bow ties?"

He heard a distinctly amused chuckle coming from the bedroom, then the sound of footsteps. "Lucky for you," Kensi told him, "I happen to be great at bow ties."

Turning around, Nate held out the offending article towards her but all thought of replying to her left his head when he actually looked at her. He'd given her the bedroom so that she could get ready in private and she'd made a quip about making a grand entrance - turned out she hadn't been kidding. Her dress was a shimmering column of silver, fitted at the bodice and through the skirt, flaring out near the end. There were some sort of criss cross straps across her shoulders that he could barely make out because her hair was loose, soft curls falling gently down her back. 

Nate had seen her in a million different guises over the years; he'd never seen her look lovelier. 

"How do I look?" she asked, a smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes that suggested she already knew the answer. Dimly, it registered on him that he was staring at her, his mouth dangling as limply as the bow tie he was extending towards her and it took some effort to clear his throat to answer. 

"Aren't you not supposed to outshine the bride?" he heard himself saying and he kicked himself mentally, sure he'd overstepped the mark, but Kensi just grinned wider, a slight tinge of pink colouring her cheeks as she reached for the tie, putting it around his neck. 

"Couldn't let you down in front of all your old friends." She said it lightly, but Nate wasn't trained as a psychologist, hadn't known Kensi for as long as he had without learning to read between the lines, to hear the doubt she was trying to hide. 

"You couldn't," he said, trying to keep his voice as light as she'd kept hers. He didn't think he'd succeeded though, and when her fingers fumbled, her grip loosening, he knew he hadn't. She bit her lip, finished the tie, but she didn't drop her hands, moving them instead to his shoulders, smoothing down the jacket. 

"Nice threads," she said, a line nonetheless appearing between her eyebrows. "And yet you still managed to have it looking wrinkled."

He shrugged, an action that, if the deepening of that line was anything to go by, didn't please her overmuch.  "Reggie organised it," he began, his words cut off when Kensi turned him around. 

"She should get her money back," he heard her mutter, Hetty-like, as her hands smoothed and adjusted and she moved around him trying it get it to her satisfaction. After a minute or so, she stopped, nodded firmly and reminded him so much of Hetty that he actually got a fright. Then she looked him up and down and the smile that came to her lips had his thoughts moving in an entirely different direction. "Now that's better."

"Thanks." Feeling suddenly awkward, he looked at his watch, blinking at the time. "We should get going... I'll walk you down to the ballroom then go back up to Reggie..."

"You're such a gentleman." She was teasing him again and just like that, the awkwardness was gone. "Now, where are my shoes?" 

Those procured - a pair of silver strappy sandles that raised her a good three inches, tall enough to almost look into his eyes when she stood beside him - he offered her his arm and escorted her downstairs.  

He felt bad leaving her on her own, but Ian came to the rescue, coming over when he saw them. "I'll walk Kensi in if you want, mate," he said, and it was only when Nate looked at him quizzically that he realised Ian actually looked nervous. "Got a text from the mother of the bride," he confided, pulling at the collar of his shirt. "Reg is rapidly unspooling, seems you're wanted to work some calming magic."

Nate glanced down at Kensi who made a shooing motion with her hands. "Go...I'll be fine."

"Yeah, Doc." There was a sudden grin on Ian's face. "I'll take good care of your girl when you're taking care of mine."

Nate considered briefly - very briefly - pointing out that Kensi wasn't his girl. Seeing the answering smile on her face though, combined with Ian's words about Reggie, had him deciding that the better part of valour was discretion and heading back towards the elevator. 

When he reached the penthouse, one look at Reggie told him that whatever her mom had said to Ian, she hadn't been exaggerating. "You look beautiful," he told her, and it was the truth, but there was a panicked look in her carefully made-up eyes, a tightness to her smile that she couldn't hide. When he caught her wringing her hands, he glanced at the bridesmaids. "Ladies, can we have a minute?"

Luckily, Jillian and Dusty knew Reggie - and his relationship with her - well enough to simply nod, smile and close the door behind them. When they were alone, Nate stepped close to her, took her hands in his and held them tightly. "This is where I put on my shrink face and you tell me what's bothering you."

Reggie laughed nervously, shook her head. "I don't know," she told him, eyes bright with tears. "I don't know why I'm so nervous... I just keep thinking of everything that could go wrong..."

"So let it." His words had her blinking in confusion. "Seriously, let it. No matter what happens today, you are getting married. To the man you've been in love with since you were seventeen years old. Anything that happens, you'll be able to laugh about it when you tell your kids and grandkids about it. But what matters, what really matters, is the two of you, and what you're doing today. The rest... it's just window dressing."

He might have said more, but he had to stop talking when Reggie threw herself into his arms. Returning  the hug, he grinned, knowing that the worst was over. "Try not to wrinkle the tux," he told her, only half joking. "Kensi will kill me."

Reggie laughed, drawing back and running her index finger carefully under each eye. "And you say she's not your girlfriend."

"Well," he said, sidestepping the issue, "when last I saw her, your fiancé was escorting her into the ballroom, so you may want to get downstairs before she applies some of her skill set and kidnaps him..."  
   
"I've seen how you look at her." Reggie wouldn't be thwarted and Nate was reminded suddenly that she knew him just as well as he knew her. "You've only ever looked at one girl like that, that I've seen." She took a deep breath, set her jaw, steeling herself not to cry again. "You deserve to be happy, Nate... more than anyone I know." She slid her hands into his, squeezed them. "She'd want that for you, you know?"

Nate squeezed back as he cleared his throat. "I am happy, Reg."

"You know what I mean." Reggie wasn't going to let him away with that. "Besides," she added more gently, a teasing smile on her face, "I've seen how she looks at you too." He opened his mouth to protest but she shook her head. "Think about it, Nate. Now..." She looked around her, grinning when she spied her bouquet. "I think I have a wedding to attend."

*

After that, the worst was over, as Nate had known that it would be. Reggie smiled as she walked - floated really - down the aisle on his arm and there was barely a dry eye in the room as she and Ian said their vows. Even Kensi's eyes glistened with tears as they exchanged rings and Nate would have been teasing her about it if she hadn't looked so damn beautiful. 

Afterwards they mingled with the same people they'd talked to at the dinner the previous night. There were more stories and reminisces, plenty of smiles and plenty of photographs. The meal was first class, and as Nate had predicted, Jesse's best man speech was a hit, the perfect combination of humour and sincerity to make the tears threaten to flow again. 

Reggie and Ian's first dance was, much to the groom's chagrin, one of his songs. Reggie made a speech beforehand, letting people know that it wasn't Ian being big headed, but that she'd insisted - it just so happened to be the first song he'd ever written for her. Flashbulbs popped as they swayed together, Ian not being much of a dancer and when they were finished, it was Ian's turn to make a speech. 

"Ok, so that was the first song I wrote for Reg," he told the crowd as he stood up on the stage, had someone passing him his favourite guitar. "And this is going to be the latest one... 'Cept I need a bit of help. And since my loyal band wouldn't have been able to keep this a secret from my wife..." It was the first time he'd called her that and Nate didn't miss how the smile on Reggie's face grew even wider. "Well, I had to throw together a backup band. So, with no rehearsal, I give you..." He gestured and people began moving their way towards the stage. "On drums, Danny Amatullo; on piano, Jesse Velasquez; and on bass guitar, Nate Getz."

Nate moved to go to the stage, was stopped by Kensi's hand on his arm. Her eyes were wide, a mixture of shock and curiosity and he shrugged one shoulder as he gave an apologetic grin. Taking a bass guitar from Ian, he heard the other man chuckle. "Think your lady looks quite shocked, Doc," he said. Nate didn't disagree. 

"Let's just hope it's for a good reason," he replied instead, running his fingers over the guitar strings and sending a prayer to whoever might be listening that he got through the song. He'd been practising since Ian had sent him the music, but Ian hadn't been kidding when he'd said the four of them hadn't rehearsed together at all and besides, very few people were at Ian Ware's level of musical proficiency and Nate knew he was very far from being one of them. 

Ian grinned, counted them into the song and they began to play. A couple of bars later, he began to sing and Nate smiled at the lyrics, at Reggie's reaction to them. Standing at the foot of the stage, she couldn't take her eyes off Ian, her smile positively radiant and Nate thanked his lucky stars that Ian had charmed him into taking part in this, knowing it was something he would never forget. 

When the song ended, to a roar of applause from the audience, and a passionate kiss for Ian, Reggie narrowed her eyes at Nate. "I can't believe you kept this a secret. And I can't believe you got up and played in front of everyone!"

Nate laughed, hugged her and high fived Ian. "I don't think anyone was looking at me," he demurred. 

Ian shook his head.  "Not so sure about that, Doc." He inclined his head pointedly and Nate followed his gaze to Kensi, who was standing off to the side, a small smile hovering around her lips. "She couldn't take her eyes off you."

Nate opened his mouth to once again deny that there was anything going on but a new voice stopped him. "He's not lying." 

That was the longest sentence Jesse Velasquez had said to Nate since they were in high school, and he said it with a smile on his face. The same smile was on his face when he jerked his chin towards Reggie, said, "Go get her, Doc."

Nate considered saying something but when he looked at Ian and Reggie, saw their knowing smiles, he simply nodded and left the stage. 

When he reached Kensi, he expected a similar reaction as Reggie's, something along the line of narrow eyes, good natured accusations. Instead, when he was standing in front of her, close enough to touch, he got a soft smile, a shake of the head. "Got any more secrets you've been hiding from me?" she asked him and the perfect answer came to him like it was in one of those scripts that Reggie used to make him rehearse with her all those years ago. 

"Just one," he said and without thinking too much about it, without any internal debate whatsoever, he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. 

In the split second before their lips met, he saw hers curl up in a smile, so her kissing him back wasn't a complete surprise. The way she twined her arms around his neck, fingers sliding into his hair, the way she deepened the kiss though, that was something he hadn't expected, something he genuinely hadn't seen coming, no matter how much Reggie had told him otherwise. 

When he pulled away, she didn't remove her arms from around his neck. "Do you dance too?" she asked, inclining her head towards the dance floor, where people were swaying to another slow song. 

"Not well," Nate answered honestly and Kensi just laughed. 

"You'll be fine," she told him. 

And in a night of surprises, he was. 

*

Much later that night - or in reality, early the next morning - Nate walked out onto the balcony of their room to join Kensi. She was a couple of inches shorter than she'd been all day and he grinned down at her. "Finally ditched the shoes?"

"Mmm-hmmm." The noise must be what relief sounded like and when she tore her eyes away from the New York skyline to look at him, the smile she gave him was definitely what happiness looked like. She took the flute of champagne he offered her with a raised eyebrow. "Where did this come from?"

Nate could feel his cheeks starting to darken. "Reggie and Ian sent it up; it was beside the bed." Kensi's surprise showed on his face and he continued, "There was also a note that I'm not going to show you..."

"Oh you have to now!" He'd expected the response, handed her the slip of paper, grinned as her eyes went wide as she read. "Ok... I guess that's old friends for you."

Nate shrugged as he took the note back, put it into his pocket, deciding the best, or at least the least embarrassing thing to do would be to change the subject. A shiver from Kensi gave him his excuse. "Here," he said, putting his glass on the balcony and sliding his jacket off, draping it over her shoulders. "We can go in if you're cold," he belatedly added but he was happy to see her shake her head. 

"I'm good here," she told him, drawing the jacket tighter around her with one hand, even as she stepped in closer to him. Grinning, Nate stepped behind her, slid an arm around her waist to pull her flush against him. Relaxing against him, she murmured, "This sounds really clichéd... but I don't want today to end."

"Me neither." Nate's voice was just as soft as he kissed the top of her head.  She put her glass down on the balcony beside his, moved her hand to cover his. A chuckle came from his lip despite himself, sheer amazement he thought.  "This is not how I expected to end the night."

Kensi turned her head to meet his gaze, raised one eyebrow. "So you mean this wasn't your cunning plan from the start?" Nate's first impulse was to protest, even if her tone, the smile on her lips, told him loud and clear that she was teasing him. His answer came in kind, a tightening of his arms around her waist showing her that he was equally lighthearted.  

"Nothing so devious." Another kiss to the side of her head, then honesty. "Although I'm not complaining." 

She giggled at that, swatted his hand ineffectually. "I should hope not." She frowned slightly. "How long?"

Nate sighed. "Probably since before I went away... but once I was over there..." He shrugged. "Half a world away, top secret mission, sleeping during the day, travelling at night? Let's just say it made me appreciate what I'd left behind."

"I didn't realise how much I was going to miss you," Kensi admitted. "But I did. I realised that all over again when you came back. Like..." She stopped, shook her head. "It sounds stupid."

"Like you'd found something that was missing." 

The words were out before Nate could stop them, and Kensi's cheeks were pink but she was nodding. "Exactly." He kissed her again then, because he couldn't do anything else and once again, he could her smile against his lips. When he pulled back, he touched her cheek. "You know we have to have a capital-T talk though, right?"

Nodding, Kensi turned in his arms, laid her cheek against his chest, over his heart which must have been going like a trip hammer. "Tomorrow," she said. "Lets just enjoy tonight?"

He had a feeling that he was going to have a hard time denying her anything when she was in his arms like that, but just this once, Nate didn't think that was a bad thing, and he held her tighter and together  they watched the night turn into morning. 


End file.
